Comparing Surface Height Used in NCAR Climate Model with That Observed by ICEsat: Effects on Skin Temperature Simulation

This paper tries to identify one of the reasons for the poor land skin temperature simulated by a climate model over Greenland. It first compares ICEsat surface height measurements over Greenland with those used by the model and reveals that the surface height of Greenland prescribed in the National...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Menglin Jin
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2009-01-01
Series:Advances in Meteorology
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2009/189406
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1832558560877215744
author Menglin Jin
author_facet Menglin Jin
author_sort Menglin Jin
collection DOAJ
description This paper tries to identify one of the reasons for the poor land skin temperature simulated by a climate model over Greenland. It first compares ICEsat surface height measurements over Greenland with those used by the model and reveals that the surface height of Greenland prescribed in the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Community Climate System Model/Community Land Model version 3 (CCSM/CLM3) differs greatly from the satellite measurements from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) ICEsat at edges and central glacier regions. This deficiency, in part, leads to underestimated skin temperatures at coastal regions—the areas where significant ice sheet melt is observed. Furthermore, sensitivity studies reveal that surface skin temperature simulations of Greenland would be significantly improved if the more accurate surface height is used. The problem of the height used in current global climate model is mainly due to the fact that the model has to use coarse grid size, and within one grid, land surface height has high heterogeneity. How to assign a proper surface height for each model grid and meanwhile adequately present the high heterogeneity of land surface is a great challenge in current model development.
format Article
id doaj-art-ee2ebfebb1b340bbb3e4fbb85b382c4d
institution Kabale University
issn 1687-9309
1687-9317
language English
publishDate 2009-01-01
publisher Wiley
record_format Article
series Advances in Meteorology
spelling doaj-art-ee2ebfebb1b340bbb3e4fbb85b382c4d2025-02-03T01:32:11ZengWileyAdvances in Meteorology1687-93091687-93172009-01-01200910.1155/2009/189406189406Comparing Surface Height Used in NCAR Climate Model with That Observed by ICEsat: Effects on Skin Temperature SimulationMenglin Jin0Department of Meteorology, San Jose State University, CA 95192-0140, USAThis paper tries to identify one of the reasons for the poor land skin temperature simulated by a climate model over Greenland. It first compares ICEsat surface height measurements over Greenland with those used by the model and reveals that the surface height of Greenland prescribed in the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Community Climate System Model/Community Land Model version 3 (CCSM/CLM3) differs greatly from the satellite measurements from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) ICEsat at edges and central glacier regions. This deficiency, in part, leads to underestimated skin temperatures at coastal regions—the areas where significant ice sheet melt is observed. Furthermore, sensitivity studies reveal that surface skin temperature simulations of Greenland would be significantly improved if the more accurate surface height is used. The problem of the height used in current global climate model is mainly due to the fact that the model has to use coarse grid size, and within one grid, land surface height has high heterogeneity. How to assign a proper surface height for each model grid and meanwhile adequately present the high heterogeneity of land surface is a great challenge in current model development.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2009/189406
spellingShingle Menglin Jin
Comparing Surface Height Used in NCAR Climate Model with That Observed by ICEsat: Effects on Skin Temperature Simulation
Advances in Meteorology
title Comparing Surface Height Used in NCAR Climate Model with That Observed by ICEsat: Effects on Skin Temperature Simulation
title_full Comparing Surface Height Used in NCAR Climate Model with That Observed by ICEsat: Effects on Skin Temperature Simulation
title_fullStr Comparing Surface Height Used in NCAR Climate Model with That Observed by ICEsat: Effects on Skin Temperature Simulation
title_full_unstemmed Comparing Surface Height Used in NCAR Climate Model with That Observed by ICEsat: Effects on Skin Temperature Simulation
title_short Comparing Surface Height Used in NCAR Climate Model with That Observed by ICEsat: Effects on Skin Temperature Simulation
title_sort comparing surface height used in ncar climate model with that observed by icesat effects on skin temperature simulation
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2009/189406
work_keys_str_mv AT menglinjin comparingsurfaceheightusedinncarclimatemodelwiththatobservedbyicesateffectsonskintemperaturesimulation